My child drew on the Quran. What do I do?
You leave the room for two minutes. When you come back there is a three-year-old standing on the sofa with a felt-tip pen, smiling proudly, and a Quran in their lap with purple loops drawn across Surah Al-Baqarah. Or you find the youngest has torn out a page. Or one of the children from the playgroup has coloured an entire Juz in rainbow wax crayon while nobody was looking.
A small part of you wants to cry. A bigger part is panicking about what this means Islamically. A guilty part is wondering whether you can just slip it back on the shelf and pretend it didn't happen.
First: breathe. Children are children, and this is not a sin on you or them. Second: here is the plainly-written ruling and the practical way through.
Is the child in trouble? Are you?
No. A child below the age of discernment is not held accountable — the pen of responsibility is lifted from them. And for the adult, accidental damage to a Mushaf through a moment of ordinary parenting is not a sin. The Islamic ethic around the Quran is about intention and respect, not about demanding that small children never touch a book.
What matters is what you do now that you know.
Can the Quran still be used?
It depends on two questions:
- Is the Arabic text still fully legible? If a child has drawn in the margins, on the cover, or between lines without covering the text, the Mushaf is still a Mushaf. It can continue to be used.
- Has the text itself been obscured, torn, or destroyed? If verses are scribbled over so they can't be read, pages are torn out, or the ink has run, the copy is no longer functional as a Mushaf.
If it is still legible, you do not need to do anything. You might place it on a higher shelf, or in a cloth cover, to reduce the chance of a repeat. But the book itself is fine.
If the text has been obscured or damaged past use, the classical ruling is that the copy should be respectfully disposed of. It should not be thrown away, and it should not be kept forever in a drawer out of guilt.
"Can I just rub it out?"
Honestly — if it's pencil in the margin, a soft rubber is fine. If it's felt-tip, biro, or wax crayon, attempts to clean it almost always make things worse: the ink spreads, the paper tears, and the damage looks a lot more deliberate afterwards. Leave it alone and assess it the way you would any other damaged copy.
What not to do
- Don't bin it. Even a damaged Mushaf should never go in general waste or recycling.
- Don't hide it. Putting a damaged copy back on the shelf to avoid the decision is a holding pattern, not respect.
- Don't burn it in the kitchen sink. The classical permission to burn applies in extremely limited circumstances where nothing else is available. In modern Britain, burial is the cleaner, safer route.
- Don't scold the child harshly. You want them to associate the Quran with care and love, not with being shouted at. Calmly say "we're gentle with the Quran" and move on.
How BookBurial helps
This is exactly the kind of situation we exist to resolve. You don't have to explain anything at a mosque desk. You don't have to bury anything yourself. You don't have to carry this around as a half-formed guilt for the next six months.
You wrap the damaged Mushaf in a clean cloth, weigh the parcel, see the price on the calculator, and post it by Royal Mail Tracked 48. We take care of the rest — a pooled burial in a dedicated plot, with the classical etiquette observed. A single damaged Quran typically costs under £15 to send.
A short walkthrough
- Decide. Is the text still legible, or not? If legible, keep using it.
- Wrap. If disposal is the right route, place the damaged Mushaf in a clean cloth.
- Weigh and price. Use the calculator.
- Pack and post. Sturdy cardboard box, Royal Mail Tracked 48 from any Post Office.
- Receive confirmation. We confirm arrival. The pooled burial follows later in the year.
A last word
Children draw on things. That is their whole job. The Quran being in their orbit — on the shelf, in the living room, on the bedside table — is a good thing in the long run. The occasional damaged copy is a small, ordinary consequence of a house where the book is present and loved. Deal with the damaged copy respectfully, and move on without the guilt.